Critical Turkey Presidential Election Slated For 24 June

Photo: Reuters

Critical Turkey Presidential Election Slated For 24 June

He is an authoritarian ruler trying to maintain the facade of democratic legitimacy. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to "probably" win the upcoming presidential election. Turkey will hold presidential and parliamentary elections 24 June, 2018. If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, a second-round run-off election for the presidency will be held on 8 July. These elections will take place under the current state of emergency initiated in 2016 after a failed coup. It will bring in a new presidential system, narrowly approved by voters in an April 2017 referendum. The system drastically increases the powers of the president while reducing the role of the parliament.

President Erdogan is expected to hold onto power, after these snap elections caught the opposition off guard. Erdogan's strategy after the 2016 failed coup has been to use the political instability to his advantage and unify Turkey under Sunni Islam. Erdogan's Turkish nationalism stifles freedom of expression as it attacks dissenting politicians and religious messages. Christians Believers are treated as traitors to both Islam and the Turkish identity. Under the existing martial law, Erdogan has purged Turkey of political opponents and dissenters, earning the infamous title of the world's biggest jailer of journalists.

What happens to the parliament? It continues on as a legislative body, but with limited influence over the newly empowered executive branch -- namely Erdogan. Although its membership would increase to 600 from the current 550, it would require at least 360 votes to open any investigation into the president or other executive ministers. It is virtually stripped of power in deference to the president. The nation of Turkey ranks 31 on Open Doors' World Watch List of the harshest persecutors of Christians in the world.

Prayer moves the hand of God. Once there is sustained, strategic, and informed prayer in the 10/40 Window, we will witness massive numbers of unreached people coming to Christ. Pray that it will happen in our generation. - Beverly Pegues